His homework. Finally done.

My Hero

When people think of a hero, they always think of someone like Superman or Spiderman, when really a hero can just be someone who has done something cool, inspiring or just simply someone you look up too. In my case it would have to be my grandpa. It took me a while to decide on who to do for this project, but once I brought my grandpa into the brainstorming process I knew he was the perfect person.

My grandpa is inspiring to me because if I look back at my life, he’s always been there. He’s always been there to baby-sit me when my mom went out, he would always entertain me when I was bored, and even if my mom had to work, he would bring me to his work and I would help him. Someday, I hope to be the kind of man that he is… someone who makes his grandkids feel special and loved.

He thinks that he’s going to live forever, and if you look back at his life you would probably agree with him. From a major heart attack in 1991 that damaged a lot of his heart, to a triple bypass in 1992 that had many complications and destroyed even more of his heart, to heart failure in 2000 when his heart stopped beating for 4 minutes - he always bounced back. I wasn’t born until 1994, so I wasn’t alive when he had his heart attack or surgery, but I remember when his heart failed; he was in the exercise room at the Walnut Grove pool on the treadmill when he all the sudden fell over looking as if he was dead… and when he was hooked up to the heart monitor they found out he was dead…think again. A couple minutes after the heart failure he awoke, got off of the gurney, walked down to his truck, and then drove home.
He now only has ¼ of his heart working and he has two pacemakers helping him stay alive.

From these unfortunate events in his life he’s taught me to never think its over, and to always keep your chin up.

Another portion in his life that is interesting is the fact that he is a millionaire and he only has a grade 2 education. He was born in Russia and when he was 2 years old his dad was executed, so his mom brother and twin sister came to Canada. At 12 years old they put him into grade 1. When he was in grade 3 his teacher attempted to give him the strap, but my grandpa fought him off, then two teachers came in, held him down, and smacked him silly. He then got mad at school, left, and never returned. He then went to work and loved it ever since.

One of the greatest things that my grandpa’s life has taught me (that I can share in this project, because most other things are not what a teacher would want to hear from his student), and that’s even if you can’t read or write or do math doesn’t mean you’re going to fail at life. You need to find the things that you’re good at and love doing then stick with them.

Recently, my grandpa was diagnosed with the disease of Alzheimer’s, which is definitely going to be very hard to deal with, but we will try our best. And even though my grandpa is slowing losing his memory he is still inspiring me. He is trying really hard to remember all the good times he and I have had over the years, he always focuses on the positive things. Hopefully there will still be more to come.